KPBS SPECIAL COVERAGE

SAN DIEGO  Since mid-September, Carly Fiorina's supporters have been reaching out to Latinos in 42 cities throughout California. Last night, the "Vote Your Values" bus stopped at an evangelical church inside a strip mall in Chula Vista.

A group of about 50 people came together for prayer, and then, for a campaign message.

Alfonso Aguilar was among those who led the bus tour. He's the director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, which endorses Fiorina.

"Vota Tus Valores, Vote Your Values, is a campaign to encourage Latino voters to vote for life, for marriage, and we're encouraging them to vote for Carly Fiorina," says Aguilar. "Not because she's a Republican, this is an independent expenditure telling Latinos to vote for their values."

Above: The "Vota Tus Valores" bus from the Carly Fiorina campaign, parked outside a Latino church in Chula Vista.

Fiorina hopes to unseat incumbent Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer by courting Latino voters -- especially the church-going crowd. Latinos of all faiths currently make up about 20 percent of the state's electorate, according to Public Policy Institute of California.

But not everyone in the crowd accepted the Vote Your Values message.

Poll

"I'm a Latina. I want the same things that everybody else wants, I want to be able to make choices, I want the freedom to marry who I want to marry," said Phyllis Lozano, a field organizer and a critic of this and other campaigns trying to get the Latino vote.

"So you know, to target me and to say that these are the traditional Latino values -- well, that doesn't mean that we're all the same."

A recent L.A. Times poll says that many Latino voters remain reluctant to vote for Republican candidates this midterm election. They give Democrat Barbara Boxer a 38-point lead over Fiorina.

The opening paragraph is so flawed it is laughable. This is not Carly's bus tour. It is NOT the candidate's bus. Carly has been reaching out to Latino voters since she entered the race. The Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles has been reaching out to Latinos in 42 cities since mid-September. Does the author know what an independent expenditure is? The first paragraph could read:

"Since November of 2009, Carly Fiorina has been reaching out to Latinos in cities throughout California. Last night, a bus campaign funded by independent Latino supporters of Carly stopped at an evangelical church inside a strip mall in Chula Vista."

I could see how somebody driving next to the bus would be confused and believe it is a Carly bus. Somebody actually quoting a director of the organization funding the independent expenditure, should be smart enough to report accurately.

Myself, my family, and my wife's family are former illegal aliens, passive Catholics, and semi-fluent in the English language. Unlike our older generation (35-88) relatives in the U.S., the younger folks in our family (15-34), are less and less conservative. The U.S. and its culture dilutes and de-sensitizes our traditional/conversative values. Latinos are split between Democrats, who pass some laws that benefit Latinos only (immigration, job creation, medical benefits, etcs..) and Republicans who reinforce traditional/conservative values. During the Prop 8 vote, we had a family get together (60+) and discovered that the younger generation was more accepting to single parenting, liberal sexual orientation, abortion, fornication, etc.. We discovered that there was a language barrier. Latinos, like my parents and grand parents who haven't mastered the English language, vote without clearly knowing what's at stake and what the impact will be. We also discovered that Latino's don't vote according to their conservative Catholic/Christian faith. Phyllis Lozano fails to admit that she represents the new genertion American Latino. Unforutunately, Latin America is adopting America's liberal culture. If it wasn't for political corruption, unemployment, and crime in our homeland, most latino immigrants would rather live in their traditional/conservative homeland.